"Great animated chart showing the growth of obesity in America over the last 20 years. Its shocking to see just how recent most of the growth has been. In some states more than 25% of the adult population have BMI's over 30, regarded as obese. The health impact of that level of obesity will be immense, from diabetes through artherosclerosis to heart attacks. I can imagine that the associated costs to society, both medical costs and lost productivity, sick days etc, will be very high. In the same way that smokers now pay suficient tax through the purchase of ciggarettes to offset the cost of health issues (at least in the UK) perhaps we should find a way to do the same with obesity. It is difficult to conceive of how you might tax fat, but it might be neccessary sooner rather than later. For your interest my BMI is currently 24.5, just inside the ""normal weight"" category. If I wanted to join the obese club I would have to put on 45 lbs or 20.5 kg, thats a lot of burgers and beer. If you want to calculate yours there are a million place on the web and here is one http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ If you are feeling brave leave your BMI in the comments, that includes you Dan. See the diagram here via the amazing boingboing.net technorati tags:obesity, health Technorati Tags: health, obesity"
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